By ARNIE STAPLETON
AP Sports Writer

DENVER(AP) -- Carlos Gonzalez can't tell whether he's lucky or
cursed - or if his left palm is healed or not.

Gonzalez and Todd Helton both homered into the smoky sky as the
Colorado Rockies snapped a five-game losing streak with an 8-3
win over the New York Mets on Tuesday night in a game that
featured a wild first inning with Gonzalez right in the middle
of it.

The NL wild-card leaders moved a game ahead of San Francisco,
which lost 1-0 at Philadelphia, as they started a 10-game
homestand against losing teams.

Gonzalez's left palm isn't swollen anymore but it's still purple
after he jammed it last week. And it still has the stitches he
needed to close a gash from a steak knife a few days earlier.

But he said he'll put up with the pain for the playoff push.

Gonzalez didn't want to dive again, however, as he did last week
when he re-injured the hand. So when Luis Castillo hit a sinking
liner to center field in the first inning, Gonzalez let it drop
in front of him - then threw the lead runner out at second base.

Angel Pagan, who led off with a single, was running on the pitch
and didn't see Castillo's one-hopper to Gonzalez. He mistakenly
thought Gonzalez caught the ball on the fly, and started
sprinting back to first.

Gonzalez threw him out, which denied Castillo a single and
rendered the play a fielder's choice.

"That kind of helped bail us out a little bit," Rockies manager
Jim Tracy said. "We'd have had a much deeper hole to climb out
of."

The Mets ended up with two runs that inning, a lead that was
erased in the second when Gonzalez hit a two-run homer that
sliced through the haze that meteorologists blamed on the
California wildfires more than 800 miles away and landed in the
second deck in right field for a 3-2 Colorado lead.

"He's back and he's the Carlos Gonzalez that we had before he
hurt his hand," Tracy said.

It helped that Pagan goofed up.

"He lost sight of the ball and didn't pick up the coaches," Mets
manager Jerry Manuel said. "Just his brain locked up on him. Had
a good jump on it, stolen base, Luis puts the ball in play. It
could have been a really potential big inning for us."

Gonzalez's luck didn't last long.

David Wright, fresh off the disabled list, put runners at the
corners with a single and Jeff Francoeur lined out to Gonzalez,
whose throw to the plate appeared to have Castillo nailed by
several steps before hitting the pitching rubber and sailing
over the head of catcher Yorvit Torrealba, allowing Castillo to
score easily on the sacrifice fly.

"That was a great throw. I think I had a chance to get the guy
out at home plate and save a run," Gonzalez said. "That was
really hard for me when the ball hit the mound."

Gonzalez was charged with an error because Wright advanced to
second base on the wild hop, and he came around to score on a
double by Fernando Tatis, making it 2-0.

"Oh, it was a crazy inning because they got four hits and they
could have not scored any runs but for the throw," Gonzalez
said. "But there's nothing you can do about that. That's
baseball."

The Rockies got a run back in the bottom half when Garrett
Atkins drew a bases-loaded walk off right-hander Mike Pelfrey
(9-10), who lasted just four innings.

"I thought that was a really big at-bat," Helton said. "It made
us kind of relax a little and say, 'You know what, we can score
some runs off this guy."'

Jorge De La Rosa (13-9) settled down from his shaky start,
allowing just one unearned run and four hits in six innings, and
the Rockies chased Pelfrey early, tagging him for seven runs,
six earned, on six hits in four innings, including Helton's 14th
homer.

His three-run shot in the fourth made it 7-2.

Wright was activated from the 15-day disabled list and played
his first game for the Mets since getting hit in the head by a
pitch from San Francisco's Matt Cain on Aug. 15. Wright went 1
for 3.

"I felt surprisingly good considering I missed the last couple
of weeks," Wright said.

Wearing his bulky, new protective batting helmet, Wright helped
New York take a 2-0 lead in the wild first inning when he
singled and scored.

"Obviously, I don't care what I look like," said Wright, razzed
by fans and players alike. "If it provides more safety I'm all
for that. Maybe I've got an odd-shaped head."

NOTES: Torrealba extended his career-best hitting streak to 11
games. ... Jason Giambi made his Rockies - and NL - debut in the
seventh when he batted for the pitcher with the bases loaded and
drew a four-pitch walk from Sean Green.